West Ham legend reveals who he would vote for as Hammer of the Year

The player of the year awards are coming up in the next few weeks, and Cottee has told London24 which two players he would vote for at West Ham United.

“The Hammer of the Year voting is just around the corner and it seems to be wide open,” the former striker said. “There were some who did really well in the first half of the season, but it is consistency that counts.

Cresswell and Sakho will likely be popular choices in the voting for Hammer of the Year, with the summer signings doing much to stake their claim as instant club icons.

Left-back Cresswell arrived from Championship side Ipswich Town and has brought attacking urgency and defensive solidity to the wide positions, and he was unlucky not to win an England call-up during the ongoing international break.

Sakho similarly was signed in the summer, and the Senegalese striker has since become a key international figure off the back of his performances for Sam Allardyce’s men. The 25-year-old arrived at the club as the best player in France’s Ligue 2, and continued his great form in the Premier League, scoring 12 goals in 24 games to lead the club’s scoring charts.

There are other performers who could stake a claim as Hammer of the Year, with Stewart Downing, Enner Valencia, Winston Reid and Alex Song all contenders, but Cottee’s claim that consistency is key means that Sakho and Cresswell are surely favourites.

While the majority of the Irons team performed admirably before Christmas, they have struggled in the second half of the campaign, and it has been Cresswell and Sakho alone who have kept up the top-level performances for the entire season.

Billy Hawkins

Billy is a freelance writer who contributes to various sites concerning football. Known to possess an obsession with statistics, Eastern European club sides, and Victorian football, he focuses upon the untapped potential of the Football League in the belief it is more enjoyable than the Premier League.